Youth Politics

There is a fine line that the government has to draw when it comes to the mortgage crisis. But before we even begin to discuss that, we need to determine whether or not this is even the government’s problem.

Here are the sides of the story as I see it. One side says let irresponsible borrowers lose their mortgages and may they have their properties foreclosed because they were not making wise decisions. The other side says that people were misled by companies like Fannie Mae, or that there is too much red tape and other loopholes that prevent people from making correct decisions. Of course, I’ll definitely say that it’s both, and that’s a problem. How can anyone distinguish the responsible, misled borrowers from the irresponsible borrowers?

I’m all for regulating the housing market when it comes to how business is conducted. Persuading home buyers from getting a home using shrewd business tactics that hide the truth about refinancing options etc. should be frowned upon and should be controlled to some degree I think. However, we cannot be bailing out whoever we please. In the end, the responsibility goes to, well, the home buyer. No one should lean on the government for any sort of financial help, as that’s not really its function.

I agree that we are in both a credit and mortgage crisis, however it’s really the American people that got us here if you think about it. That’s not to say that the big credit and mortgage companies aren’t at fault, but in the end the combination of some irresponsibility as well as loose regulation at these big companies has taken a turn for the worst, all at once. I’m glad that at least we’ll see a tightening up of credit as I think people really need to prove that they deserve to have credit.

Of course I’m no expert, but this is how I see things as they are now. Are more innocent people hurt by this than non-innocent? Should the credit and mortgage companies have stricter controls? Was regulation to blame? I’ll definitely look into this of course, but I’d like to know your thoughts as well.

I think Obama using government money to invest in our production facilities is the right call.

Economically, countries decide to allocate a certain percentage of resources towards production, and a certain percentage towards capital investments (stuff that will boost production and bolster faster economic growth). Now that people aren’t spending as much on goods, there’s little use producing goods at the rate that we are. So, why not reallocate into investments?

The government can easily replace jobs by putting misplaced workers into projects that will help boost our economy in the future. The plan seems solid to me from an economic standpoint.

Could such intervention cause the recession to last longer? The trend shows that recessions in the United States are lasting shorter and shorter. On the flip side, this recession has been caused by more than simple market fluctuation. We’re looking at a sharp decline in gas sales as well as a whole industry failing, the auto industry. The auto industry makes up 20% of the nation’s retail sales. That is huge! I do want us to recover as quickly as possible, however I also don’t want people to be stranded and left jobless for the entire period, either. Investing now could put the United States much further ahead in the future.

The biggest problem with all of this investing is the strain on the national debt. It’s huge. It will not be able to sustain itself much longer. But I don’t see any other alternative at this point. We absolutely need to fix the debt, but at the same time we also need to make sure that the collapse of an entire industry doesn’t put hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets, collecting welfare money that the government can’t afford to give out. Well, unless they don’t bail out the big automakers (I don’t think they really should).

What do you think about investing in our production? Sound like a plan or should the government stay out of this completely?

My apologies for not posting anything political. The attack in Mumbai was shameful, and although I feel sorry for the victims of the attack, I don’t have much to add that you couldn’t find at other news sources.

Today I checked the progress of my two investments, Apple and Google.

Now, had I had a lot more money, I could have invested a lot more into both of these companies. But, because I am dirt poor, I have to settle for almost zero stock in both of them.

Here are what I bought my stocks for and how many:

3 Google @ $262.22
2 Apple @ $81.97

Total amount invested then is $950.60.

When I checked today, both my Google and Apple stocks have gone up a moderate amount. Here’s what they look like now.

Google: $283.99
Apple: $94.00

The total amount in my account right now is $1039.97. Which means I have profited 89.37 in two weeks. Not bad considering I came into this with very little money. Percentage-wise I’ve gained 8.6% from what I’ve invested so far. I don’t know if that is any good, but I like how things have been turning out considering the slumping economy and all.

I am going to continue to monitor my progress on a daily basis. That way my graph will look a whole lot better. I’ll be able to see the ups and downs, as well as how I could have done better. I’m also interested in looking at trends between these stocks and how the Dow Jones Industrial Average performs as a whole. So far I’ve noticed that my stocks go up when the Dow Jones closes positively, and my stocks decline a bit when it closes negatively. We’ll see how that continues however.

As it stands right now, I have optimally allocated my money into these companies. Google has gone up more, and since I cannot afford anymore Google stock, then no other configuration of stocks would have given me as much of a profit. Of course, there are probably better investments out there on the market, but I’ve decided to give the tech industry a shot.

I’m also interested in figuring out when I should bail out my money and try other opportunities. I would love to see Google rebound back to 700-800 dollars a share, and I have similar hopes for Apple. But is that realistic? Will they ever bounce that high again? Will Obama’s inauguration boost investor confidence and send my stocks skyrocketing? We’ll see.

If you know of any other companies worth looking into for investment, let me know. I’m quite interested in short-term investments.

Hello again!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Politics has taken somewhat of a backseat now that the election is over, although there’s still much discussion to be had. I just haven’t found much of it to be interesting at this time. Besides that, I’ve been preparing for my return to college, so there have been a lot of last minute things I needed to take care of.

I’ve taken this time to invest in the stock market. The stock market had hit yet another low, and I’m taking advantage of the bear market that it is right now so that when the market recovers, I’ll be in good shape. Currently I’m invested in Google and Apple, so we’ll see how that turns out. Right now they are well, well below where they were a year ago, and I can only hope that their stocks go back to their previous levels eventually. Wish me luck.

I found a nice site for those interested in starting to invest. I know I’m new to it, and I think you’ll find it to be a useful guide. The site is called Investing First Steps.

http://www.investingfirststeps.com/

Again, have a look, as you might find some new tips you just haven’t seen, and it looks to be a good resource for new investors.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that this blog is once again on the top 10 listings of Google for the keyword “Youth Politics”. This is great news, as it had been in the top 10 before but then disappeared for a little while.

If you have any investment tips for me or know of any good sites, let me know. I could definitely use the help!

It is without a doubt that America’s automobile industry is in big trouble. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all been hit big time by the economic downturn. Fewer people driving as well as increased demand of fuel efficient Japanese vehicles have accelerate the stumbling car industry. What’s America to do?

So far the answer has been to give these companies huge sums of money. Is that really justifiable? Let me put this into perspective. We saw the rise of people driving Hummers only a few years back. Was that really a good direction to follow? At roughly the same time, the Japanese released the Prius to the United States market. That was a much better call in my opinion. Now everyone wants to save fuel and the Prius is a fantastic way to go. Will the Hummer line of vehicles continue the way it had before? I doubt it. Now US automakers need to scramble to produce more fuel efficient vehicles. It’s sad they did not see this coming.

There are two ways to deal with a failing industry: Hand it over to the public sector or let it die. In a purely capitalistic world we’d simply let that industry fall to bits, however it is much more complicated than that. Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs. The auto industry is responsible for 20% of retail sales here in the United States. That is a HUGE portion of our economy. Is it simply too important to die? If so, how do we keep it alive?

I don’t see how at this point. We failed to be innovative a whole lot sooner, and now we’re injecting money into an industry that we hope will bounce back. It’s a shame those companies let all of their employees down due to shortsightedness. I especially feel sorry for those towns that have a majority of their population working for GM or Ford or Chrysler. They get the worst of it, and my sympathies go out to those families who are/will soon have a hard time with upcoming layoffs.

What should America do? Does injecting capital into these companies seem like the right solution? This industry is a huge thorn at our side. Should we instead retrain these workers and place them in a thriving, more innovative industry? Both solutions cost money. I’m no expert, and I won’t pretend to be one. I have no idea what the best course of action here is. Which is the best solution?